Didja think of this one? Roasted strawberries

Hello everyone. I'm back again. Trying hard to keep up with the world, the work, everything. I was in San Francisco for my annual "mental clean up" and to get in touch with some really good food and some really good friends. You'll be seeing some of the food experiences reflected in this blog, in days to come.
Just before I left, I downloaded a recipe from one of my many food sites. It was a recipe for something I had not considered before: roasted strawberries. Now, Annalena roasts fruit a lot. As cherries are coming into season, I roast them to serve with grilled meat. Roasted peaches and apricots? OH YEAH. So, too, plums. But I had never thought about strawberries.
The recipe was interesting, but vague. For example, it called for "1 basket of strawberries."
Now, COME ON. What the hell does that mean? I sure don't know. And when I made it, the first time, I found that the cooking time was incredibly off. Normally, I would have been able to fix that, as underroasting is simple to fix. You just keep roasting. But there wasn't time. So, I wound up with a very wet product, something like a cross between stewed tomatoes (one of my least favorite things in the world), and thawed frozen strawberries. Tastewise, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. They were ok, but I wound up feeling "all that time, for THIS?"
Well, having looked at the recipe, and having considered it from start to finish, I did it again, my way. And this time, it was very successful.

You will not need to do much work here. The work is done in about 10 minutes. But you will have to wait: 4 hours in fact. Yup, four hours. Now, those of you who have made my quince paste recipe will think of this as a sprint. But the thought of cooking strawberries for 4 hours may raise an eyebrow or two.

Trust me. I promise. Let's get going.

First, preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Yes, you will have to preheat to that temperature, as the pilot light keeps your oven at a lower temperature. While that is happening, fill a 9x9 glass baking dish (DO NOT USE METAL) with strawberries. You should have enough so that they are a snug fit. Try to use smaller ones, but unless they're gigantic, you should be fine. Get that little green thingy out of the top of all of them, and if you have really big ones, cut them in half. Otherwise, leave them as is. Put them in a bowl with a quarter cup of sugar, and toss them gently. Then put em all back into that baking dish.

Put the baking dish into the oven, and leave it alone for four hours.

The berries are going to shrink a lot. Probably to about half to one third their original volume. And you're going to get a really nice little portion of thick, sweet strawberry syrup. Taste what you've got. This is NOT what a thawed frozen strawberry tastes like. Let's just put it this way: is there anyone who can eat 2 strawberries and be full? Well, you can with these.

I'm going to put mine on top of some vanilla ice cream, or perhaps some brown butter ice cream (recipe to follow). You should think along these lines when using them. Dessert topping or something to fill your mouth with sweet tart flavor ( I did say that, didn't I?). I think you'll be pleased. Just be patient.